A self-confessed sceptic this week told how she saw a UFO in the Ettrick Valley.
Waitress and shoot picker-upper Pauline Hemsley woke during the night and saw a bright light hanging low in the sky.

The 40-year-old said it moved to another spot about 200 yards along Kipp Hill and then disappeared. She said the whole incident lasted about four minutes.

"At first I thought it was a really bright star, but it was too bright and way too big and too low down. It was just hanging there."

She woke about 3am on Monday last week and caught sight of the light outside a curtainless window at her Hawkshaw home, near Ettrickbridge.

"It almost flashed to become a smaller light with a light either side and then back to its original form.

"I watched for a couple of minutes, trying to decide if it was a plane or star, when it suddenly disappeared and reappeared further along the hill. I was pretty certain it wasn't a plane by now and thought it doubtful it was a star as it was so bright and the night was cloudy with no other stars twinkling.

"I always thought I'd be really scared if I came across anything weird, but I wasn't bothered. I just snuggled down and thought "fancy that", and went back to sleep."

She told her housemate, grousekeeper Matt Simmons, the next morning, but he just laughed.

And she admitted: "I don't believe in this sort of stuff. I don't generally hold much store by it ... If someone had said it to me I would have laughed."

And that has been the reaction of her family and friends.

Pauline emailed her mother asking her what she would say if she told her she'd seen a flying saucer - and her mother had asked: "Which one of you threw it?"

Her brother had asked her if her sighting was pink and elephant-shaped.

She searched the internet the following morning to see if anyone else in the area had spotted the object. And she is curious to know if anyone did or has an explanation for it.

Pauline told us: "I thought it's just me or probably somebody was up on the hill doing something."

She did ask a neighbouring beater to look for scorch marks if he was in the area.

"He just laughed," she said. "Everybody's been laughing."

But she wants to see the saucer again "to prove it to myself" - and besides, she said: "It's been a bit of excitement."